Keyword: naftalibennett

The UN’s condemnation of the IDF’s conduct in Operation Protective Edge surprises no one, Jewish Home chairman and Education Minister Naftali Bennett commented Friday. “The UN has never been honest,” he said, during an interview with Army Radio. “The world will always come to us with complaints, and we need to focus on keeping ourselves safe.” …

Education Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Tuesday that he has decided to cut state funding for a play by an Arab theater about a terrorist who murdered an IDF soldier. "I've ordered the relevant people in the education ministry to immediately remove the play from the culture basket," he said of the state-funded selection of cultural events intended for youths. Bennett was referring to the play "The Parallel Time" by Almidan, an Arab theater in Haifa. The play tells the story of Walid Daka, an Arab-Israeli imprisoned for abducting and murdering Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984. "Israeli citizens won't...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett met on Thursday evening as part of the coalition negotiations. A source involved in the meeting told Arutz Sheva, however, that there has been no progress in the negotiations between the parties and that, unlike Netanyahu's meetings with leaders of other parties, he did not speak with Bennett regarding the details of the make-up of the next government. The meeting comes amid ongoing tensions between the Likud and the Jewish Home over the coalition talks. On Wednesday, a source told Arutz Sheva that Netanyahu is planning to form a unity...

Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, called Jewish Home Chairman, Naftali Bennett, on Tuesday night. Bennett congratulated the PM on his victory. The two agreed to begin talks on establishing a nationalistic government and to act cooperatively on behalf of the security of the State of Israel and nation of Israel.

A major campaign rally for the right wing is planned for Sunday evening in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square. The “United for the Land of Israel” rally is being organized by Nachala, an organization run by former Kedumim mayor Daniella Weiss and United Headquarters for the Land of Israel. Like everything else to date in the run up to the Israeli elections, it too is fraught with internal conflict. Right wing leaders are opposed to the rally and Weiss has been trying for several weeks to convince them to attend the event. Many of the leaders on the right actually wanted...

Habayit Hayehudi leader and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said on Sunday that the developing agreement between world powers and Iran is a disaster of historic proportions. Speaking on Sunday at the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) conference, Bennett said that the deal legitimizes Iran's uranium enrichment and nuclear programs, and will pave the way for the Islamic Republic to obtain nuclear weapons "within several years." Bennett said that the Iran talks are "a 2015 March of the Folly" – a reference to historian Barbara Tuchman’s famous 1984 book. Like in the book, said Bennett, the deal with Iran goes...

Fareed speaks with Naftali Bennett, the economic minister in Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, about Iran's nuclear program. Watch the full interview on GPS this Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN. Iran - you have said that you thought a bad deal would lead to war, but a good deal could lead to peace. So the question is, do you regard the deal that is under discussion as a good deal or a bad deal? From what we can tell, the area where they seem to be at right now is that Iran would go from about 19,000...

At the Saban Forum in Washington Last Saturday evening, Naftali Bennett became overnight the talk of the town. Bennett appeared at the prestigious Saban Forum 2014 of the Brookings Institution Saban Center for Middle East Policy devoted to Israel/US relations; or what’s left of them. Bennett did not merely “appear.” He waged a one-on-one confrontation with the man who is his complete antithesis, the former US ambassador to Israel and vice president and director for foreign policy at the Brookings Institute in Washington, Martin Indyk. It was a formative, possibly unique, event. Hundreds of participants in the hall were virtually...

As polls show strong support for Jewish Home among the electorate – and rapidly slipping support among voters for her Hatnua party – Justice Minister Tzippy Livni said Thursday that as far as she was concerned, the party headed by Nafatali Bennett had no place in the coalition. “Jewish Home is a party based on deep ideological and religious ideas which will never allow Israel to sign a peace treaty with the Palestinians,” Livni said. “They have no place in the government.” ..... A new poll released Monday shows that if elections were held today, Jewish Home would get 19...

Yariv Oppenheimer, director of the far-left Peace Now organization, criticized Economy Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday, after Bennett said that the goal of the current campaign in Gaza must include a clear military decision that leaves Hamas defeated and disarmed. "How convenient it is to be Bennett and push Netanyahu into Gaza," said Oppenheimer. "If it does not happen that you can blame Netanyahu and say ‘we told you so’, and if it does happen, Netanyahu will be responsible for the failure and the complication of the day after,” he added. "I propose that Israel agree to lift the siege...

In a special interview on CNN Wednesday night, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett said that incidents such as the killing of four children on a Gaza beach earlier Wednesday were entirely the fault of Hamas – and were no accident. “I think it is terrible that Hamas is butchering its own children like this,” Bennett told senior CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer. “I would never take my children and place them next to rocket missile launchers,” knowing that it was likely to be targeted by the IDF, he said. “Hamas is conducting massive self-genocide, taking women and children and placing them next...

A “peace conference” sponsored by the leftist Israeli newspaper Haaretz devolved into violence on Tuesday when an Israeli government official was heckled and then punched in the back by an attendee, according to reports. Attendees at the Israel Conference on Peace—which was kicked off with an endorsement by President Barack Obama and features a who’s who of liberal speakers—began shouting hateful slogans and then accosted Knesset member Naftali Bennett after he defended the government’s military action, which was undertaken to stop Hamas terrorists from bombarding civilians with rockets. Left-leaning government officials who spoke at the conference condemned Hamas’ aggression and...

The Minister of Economics, Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett, was verbally and physically assaulted Tuesday in the course of the Peace Conference sponsored by ultra-leftist newspaper Haaretz. Bennett was one of the few speakers invited to the conference from outside of the political left. When he walked up on the stage, boos and catcalls of “fascist” and “murderer” were heard from the audience. Additionally, cries of "Mohammed Abu Khder's blood is on your hands" were heard, a reference to the 16-year-old Arab youth found murdered last Wednesday. ..... The Jewish Home leader used a phrase familiar to smartphone GPS users...

Economy Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday warned the terrorists involved in the kidnapping of the three Israeli teens in the West Bank last week, that if they harm the teens, Israel will chase them down. "Our aim is to bring the boys home," Bennett said. "I say to the terrorists, if one hair on the heads of the three children is damaged, we will chase any person who was involved in the planning, aiding, or execution of this kidnapping, whether he was involved directly or indirectly." Bennett made the remarks outside of the Makor Chaim Yeshiva in Kfar Etzion where...

U.S. President Barack Obama sees Israel as being responsible for the failure of the recent peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to a senior official in Washington who was quoted by the New York Times on Friday. The unnamed official told the newspaper that the president believes that Israel’s announcements of new construction in Judea and Samaria were to blame for the failure. “At every juncture, there was a settlement announcement,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “It was the thing that kept throwing a wrench in the...

Middle East envoy Martin Indyk was overheard at an upscale Washington, D.C., bar bashing Israel and fully blaming it for the recent failure of peace talks with the Palestinians, according to an individual who overheard the conversation and described it as a surprising and “nasty” 30-minute-long tirade against the Jewish state. Indyk—who has been identified by the Washington Free Beacon as the source of a recent series of anonymous quotes in the press condemning Israel—was caught openly lashing out at Israel over drinks with several members of his staff and wife, Gahl Burt. The conversation took place in the hotel...

Middle East envoy Martin Indyk was overheard on Thursday night, at the bar of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington, D.C., bashing Israel and fully blaming it for the recent failure of peace talks with the Palestinians, the Washington Free Beacon reports, citing an individual who overheard the conversation and described it as a surprising and “nasty” 30-minute-long tirade.

Martin Indyk, the American negotiator in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), reportedly went on a “nasty” rant blaming the Jewish state for the talks” failure in a conversation in an upscale Washington DC bar last Thursday. A person who overheard the conversation told Washington Free Beacon that the 30-minute-long tirade included Indyk, his wife Gahl Burt, and several members of his staff. It took place right after he spoke at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), where he openly blamed Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria for the failure of the talks, despite...

Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Perry (Yesh Atid) is trying to shelve the law that was approved Sunday by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation and that would enforce life sentences for terrorist prisoners. On Monday evening, Perry filed an appeal against the law, essentially burying it before it can be brought to the Cabinet for approval. The law would amend one of the Basic Laws of Israel, which allows the President to pardon criminals, by stating certain conditions that would prevent the pardon of any convicted terrorist. The amendment seeks to allow the judges of the court, at the time...

The man who wants to test his power against Prime Minister Benajmin Netanyahu, Israel's popular "King Bibi," works in a surprisingly understated, tube-shaped office with three telephones ringing off the hook. The only thing that stands out is a picture on the wall. Covered in glass, it shows an embroidered figure of a woman wearing an apron dress. Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, 42, is keen to show that he doesn't hold much regard for the daily grind of political life and that if it weren't for the azure silhouette of his great aunt Zila embroidered in yarn, he might instead...

John Kerry is clearly not motivated by anti-Semitism, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said Monday, setting the record straight after a lawmaker from his own party last month accused the US secretary of state of harboring hatred for the Jewish people. “Kerry is no anti-Semite. Whoever suggested that is flatly wrong,” Bennett, the chairman of the Jewish Home party, told American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. “We might sometimes disagree but America is our biggest friend; it’s our strategic friend. It’s not only an ally, it’s a big friend. However, definitely, we can agree to not agree.” …

In what appears to be the worst crisis yet for the governing coalition, sources close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday threatened to fire Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett over his criticism of Netanyahu a day earlier. “Bennett was given a message that he has to apologize clearly and unequivocally or there will be a price to pay,” a source in the Prime Minister’s Office told The Times of Israel. On Tuesday, Bennett delivered a speech lambasting the prime minister in the wake of a Times of Israel report according to which Netanyahu wants Jewish settlers to be...

Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) is presenting to the government Sunday new statistics on anti-Semitism in Europe—and the results are revealing. […] An online survey conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights revealed that in 2013, 23% of respondents refrained from attending Jewish events or religious services for fear of being attacked on their way there; 38% are afraid to wear religious symbols, like the yarmulke or kippah, in public; and 66% view anti-Semitism as having a major and constant impact on their lives. Worse, European Jews believe that their governments view anti-Semitism...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni sharply criticized Economics Minister Naftali Bennett Monday, after the Jewish Home party leader remarked at a faction meeting that a Palestinian state would "crush" the Israeli economy. "The Economics Minister must decide if he represents the Israeli people, or just the residents of isolated settlements," Livni insisted. "In these trying times, when both left-wing and right-wing businessmen are deeply concerned about the future of the Israeli economy, the person in charge of that economy actually prefers to listen to extremist Rabbis," Livni claimed. "The role of a responsible, Zionist leader is not to side with policies...

Bayit Yehudi chairman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett dismissed on Tuesday the possibility of swapping land with the Palestinians for peace or security. The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations "have only brought us terror," Bennett said at an Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference. He further warned that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state under any future peace deal will lead to terror. The Palestinian children who were born at the time the 1993 Oslo accord was agreed upon are now 21 and have grown up on incitement, he said. "No piece of paper will change this." Bennett turned...

Bayit Yehudi will not remain in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government if it officially adopts peace proposals presented by US Secretary of State John Kerry, even if reservations are presented, party leader Naftali Bennett said in closed conversations Wednesday. Ahead of Kerry's visit, Bennett spoke multiple times this week with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Israel's negotiators in diplomatic talks with the Palestinians. He insisted on receiving as much information as possible about America's proposal immediately after Kerry meets with Netanyahu. "Bennett is up to speed and has done his homework," a source close to him said. "He will not...

Economics minister and Jewish Home leader says Israel cannot ‘sit idly by’ while world allows Iran to be 6 weeks from the bomb Economics and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) said Saturday that a “bad deal” with Iran on curbing its nuclear program would “increase the need for Israeli [military] action.” “If there will be a deal which would allow Iran to have the ability to ‘break out’ and build a bomb within six weeks, we cannot sit idly by in this situation and we will examine all the options,” Bennett told Channel 2 Saturday evening.

The idea of a Palestinian state has run its course and Israel must seek another solution to the conflict with the Palestinians, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) said Monday, joining a growing number of coalition members who have recently expressed firm opposition to the two-state solution. “The idea of forming a Palestinian state in Israel has reached a dead end,” Bennett said at a meeting of the Yesha Council, the umbrella organization of Jewish communities in the West Bank. Never in the history of the Jewish people has so much energy been invested in “something so pointless,” and “we...

The intended Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni, attacked the partnership between Bayit Yehudi head MK Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid head MK Yair Lapid at week's end. "The disagreements between me and the Bayit Yehudi are very deep," Livni told Channel 10. "Regrettably, the pact between Lapid and Bennett inserted those elements into the government." "I hope that on the diplomatic subjects, Lapid won't adopt Bennett's views," she added. "I expect that in this government, at least on diplomatic matters, we will receive support from Bayit Yehudi and the pact will not lead to substantive issues being blocked. It is not...

The head of the Bayit Yehudi, Naftali Bennett, defended the #14 man on the party's Knesset list, Jeremy Gimpel, who came under attack as an extremist in TV's leftist Channel 2 at week's end. "I am proud of Jeremy Gimpel and of my entire list," Bennett told Channel 2's Dana Weiss in a Saturday night interview. The channel's Friday night newscast, a special weekly edition which sums up the week's events, featured an attack on Gimpel by ultra-leftist pundit Amnon Abramovich. Abramovich showed viewers a Youtube video of Gimpel speaking before a Christian group and raising the theoretical possibility that...

Tzipi Livni, leader of Hatnua, harshly attacked Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett, in a behind-the-scenes incident that took place just before a televised interview pitted them against each other at week's end. According to Walla! News, the two rode the elevator together before appearing on Nissim Mishal's show on Channel 2. Bennett initiated the conversation, telling Livni she had gone too far with a Facebook status in which she referred to a report that said Yitzhak Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir, was going to vote for Bennett. Livni allegedly told him: "I don't regret it; I don't even want to talk...

Tzipi Livni, who chairs the Hatnua party, slammed on Wednesday what she termed "the extremists" in her former party, the Likud. Livni, who visited a bar in Tel Aviv, warned that a coalition between these Likud extremists and the Jewish Home would be a threat to Israel. "Extremists are taking over our lives and if we do not stop them today - we'll end up in a situation that is dangerous for Israel," Livni said. "These extremists are now in the Likud in the form of (Moshe) Feiglin, (Tzipi) Hotovely, (Yariv) Levin and others - they are in the same...

..... These are very interesting elections. We all know who the next prime minister will be. The question is what kind of government he will form, will it be left or right? Will it be a national Jewish Zionist coalition with us as a major party or will it be a leftist one? We have to be strong enough to make the decision to form a nationalistic coalition the only feasible one. Q. What about those who say you are extremists? Bennett: Quite the opposite. We are the real "centrists"– loving our heritage is centrist, loving the Land of Israel...

The latest polls showed that last weekend's dust-up over Naftali Bennett's stance on how IDF soldiers who are uncomfortable with immoral orders are supposed to react has not had a negative impact on the Bayit Yehudi party's standing with the public. If anything, the controversy seems to have helped the party's prospects. Bayit Yehudi is now polling to come in as the third largest party in the Knesset, and is closing in to become the second largest. The party, headed by Bennett, continues to nip at the heels of the joint Likud-Yisrael Beytenu list, and the latest weekly poll by...

Tzipi Livni, who is running for Knesset at the head of an independent party, blamed Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett for the violence at the Oz Tzion outpost near Beit El Friday. "Bennett and the extremist rabbis led people to that hilltop on purpose, in order to create friction with IDF soldiers and a situation in which they would refuse orders," Livni wrote on her Facebook page. "These extremists led the people there on Sabbath eve in the knowledge that our children, the IDF soldiers, would have to evict them," she explained. "Netanyahu, who continues to wink toward the extremist...

The weekend media storm over Naftali Bennett's position on how IDF soldiers should deal with orders to throw Jews out of their homes does not seem to have hurt the Bayit Yehudi chairman – and in fact, the party is doing better than ever. Several polls showed that Bayit Yehudi has pulled ahead of Shas, and with its 12-13 seats (depending on the poll), the party will be the third largest, after Labor and Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu. Auguring the party's popularity is the fact that Naftali Bennett's Facebook page has now achieved 100,00 “likes,” the seal of approval Facebook users grant...

Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett responded Monday night to the uproar created by comments he made last week regarding the expulsion of Jews from their homes. Referring to Netanyahu's campaign, Bennett told Channel 2 that "a national camp does not attack a national camp. It is completely unnecessary to play in the internal field. We have to take votes away from Livni." "This policy debate is fine," said Bennett, "but to get up in the morning and see a flood of anonymous personal negative ads is not right." "Netanyahu prefers to surround himself with weak parties who have no influence...